James Cavanaugh applauded when delegates to the 21st Constitutional Convention unanimously repealed language in the federation’s constitution barring members of the Communist Party from full participation in the AFL-CIO or its subordinate bodies.

Cavanaugh, president of the South Central Federation of Labor in Madison, Wisconsin told the World his organization had petitioned the AFL-CIO “for years” to remove the constitutional bar. “Now they’ve done it,” he said.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka kept his determined silence, refusing to explain or investigate how an “ethical practices” clause that had been in effect since the founding of the Labor Federation in the 1950s, had been removed in the 2005 edition of the Constitution.